As the world population expands, so does the demand for energy. Energy often derives from sources like fossil fuels, including coal and oil, hydroelectric plants, nuclear sources, and others. The International Energy Agency projects further increases in oil consumption, with developing nations such as China and India accounting for most of the increase. Almost every element of our daily lives depends, in part, on oil, which is becoming increasingly scarce. As time further progresses, an era of inexpensive and plentiful oil is coming to an end. Accordingly, alternative sources of energy have been developed.
In addition to fossil fuels, other sources of energy such as hydroelectric, nuclear, and the like have been harvested to provide for our electricity needs. As an example, most electricity used by homes and businesses comes from turbines run on coal or other sources of fossil fuel, nuclear power generation plants, and hydroelectric plants, as well as other sources of renewable energy. Home and business use of electrical power has been widespread.
Much of the useful energy found on the Earth comes from our sun. Generally all common plant life on the Earth achieves life using photosynthesis processes from sunlight. Fossil fuels such as oil were also developed from biological materials derived from energy associated with the sun. For life on the planet Earth, the sun has been one of our most important energy sources. The sun is fuel for modern-day solar energy.
Solar energy possesses many desirable characteristics. Solar energy is renewable, clean, abundant, and widespread. Certain technologies have been developed to capture, concentrate, and store solar energy. Other technologies have been developed to convert solar energy into other useful forms of energy.
Solar panels have been developed to convert sunlight into energy. As an example, solar thermal panels convert electromagnetic radiation from the sun into thermal energy for heating homes, running certain industrial processes, or driving high grade turbines to generate electricity. Solar photovoltaic panels convert sunlight directly into electricity for a variety of applications. Solar panels are generally composed of an array of solar cells, which are interconnected to each other. The cells are often arranged in series and/or parallel groups of cells in series. Accordingly, solar panels have great potential to benefit our nation, security, and human users. They can even diversify our energy requirements and reduce the world's dependence on oil and other potentially detrimental sources of energy.
Although solar panels have been used successfully for certain applications, there are still limitations. Often, solar panels are unable to convert energy at their full potential due to the fact that the sun is often at an angle that is not optimum for the solar cells to receive solar energy. In the past, various types of conventional solar tracking mechanisms have been developed. Unfortunately, conventional solar tracking techniques are often inadequate. These and other limitations are described throughout the present specification, and may be described in more detail below.
It is clear that techniques for improving solar systems are highly desirable.